No matter how busy you think you were last month, it would take a lot to top the exploits of Hiroshima-born, Tokyo-based musician Kinuko Hiramatsu.
Hiramatsu ¡ª better known by her Sapphire Slows alias, which has seen her release music on labels that include Los Angeles tastemakers 100% Silk and Not Not Fun ¡ª spent October (and the beginning of November) on a whirlwind tour that took her from Canada to Mexico via both coasts of North America. The most impressive thing about the tour was not how Hiramatsu coped with the jam-packed schedule, but rather the way she engineered it in the first place.
¡°Because I don¡¯t have an agent, I did it all myself,¡± Hiramatsu says. ¡°I just emailed all my friends and the people I knew, so it was completely different to the first time I went to America (for industry showcase South by Southwest). Once you have 70 percent of the tour sorted then you¡¯re good to go, but at around 50 percent that¡¯s not enough ¡ª lots of artists find that their tours fall through at that point, so I was on edge the whole time.¡±
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